Construction Safety and Health in the USA: Lessons From a Decade of Turmoil

Abstract

The construction industry is one of the largest and also most hazardous industries in the USA. It is affected more severely by the business cycle than most other industries. We examined industry trends during the last decade including the severe recession. During 2008 to 2010, as a result of the recession, 2.7 million workers and 20% of all employers left the industry. By 2010, the number and rate of traumatic fatalities had reached its lowest point ever, only to gradually increase again as the industry recovered from the recession. The risks of a fatality were disproportionate with employer size. The small employers (<20 employees), which account for 37.5% of employment, were responsible for 57% of all fatalities. These small employers are less likely to embrace essential safety culture practices and are slow to adopt new approaches to occupational safety and health. These employers—especially those which hire immigrant workers and self-employed workers—lag far behind in terms of adopting even essential elements of good safety cultures and management practices. Currently, there are no restrictions on going into business as a construction contractor or seeking employment as a construction worker. There is a great need to find ways to establish minimum qualifications for becoming a construction contractor and for becoming a construction worker. Some jurisdictions have established minimum occupational safety and health training. This is a good start, but qualifications must include greater emphasis on minimum skills requirements. State and local jurisdictions have good policy tools which could be deployed for this purpose but which have largely been neglected: licensing of both companies and workers could include skills qualifications; construction permits could include requirements for occupational safety and health; and greater use of criminal prosecution could be pursued where it is obvious that basic requirements for safety and health have been ignored.